Tag Archives: prairie

Photo of the Week – (And a Tongue Twister Too)

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Purple Poppy Mallow – – say it 5 times fast! 

Purple poppy mallow, glowing like a light bulb in early morning prairie.

Besides being a favorite tongue twister for my 10-year-old son, purple poppy mallow is a plant of two divergent reputations.  On the one hand, this sprawling plant is seen by many around here as a weed because it grows well in dry sites under heavy grazing.  Its giant taproot (imagine the biggest carrot you’ve ever seen) helps it survive just about anything, including both intensive grazing and at least some kinds of herbicide application.  I have personal experience with the herbicide resistance from some spot treatments with Roundup herbicide several years ago – trying to kill patches of mostly Kentucky bluegrass.  The Roundup killed everything in the plot EXCEPT the poppy mallow.  I assume the big taproot played a large role in that survival.

A second audience, however, sees purple poppy mallow as a beautiful flower, worthy of horticultural selection and distribution.  It is used as ground cover and in flower gardens throughout much of the midwestern U.S. – and probably far beyond.  In this case, the tough sprawling nature of the plant becomes a positive attribute.

Purple poppy mallow, showing both the distinctive flower and leaf.

My own personal opinion is that purple poppy mallow is an important part of our prairies.  In some of the more degraded prairies of Nebraska, it’s one of the few highlights of color during the early summer – and often blooms in abundance.  It also does well in prairies that are in good condition, especially in dry sandy areas. 

We harvest seed from it and enjoy seeing it show up in our prairie restoration plantings.    Like other poppy mallow species, its seeds occur in a round disk that splits into pre-sliced pie pieces when they’re ripe.  When we harvest them, we usually just cut off entire sprawling branches, each with multiple flowers, and throw them in our buckets.  After they dry, it’s easy to separate the seeds from the branches. 

As to its weed status, I’ve never seen it act aggressively.  It’s just tough – something to be admired, really.  Because it can withstand intensive grazing and other kinds of disturbances that many other plant species can’t handle, it often grows in the company of other “weedy” species, and gets lumped into that category by association. 

Yet another photo of purple poppy mallow...

If you’re lucky enough to live where this poppy mallow occurs in native prairies, now is a great time to enjoy its low-growing, but very attractive flowers.  And – as you walk around enjoying its almost glowing magenta flowers, you can also entertain yourself…  

…purple poppy mallow purple poppy mallow purple poppy mallow purpy poppo…..dang!

Photo of the Week – June 2, 2011

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The Nature Conservancy’s Niobrara Valley Preserve (NVP) on the northern edge of Nebraska’s sandhills is a pretty amazing place.  I had the chance to spend a couple days there last week, something I always enjoy.  While there, I managed to get a few photos of bison from one of the two herds on the property.

Three bison bulls on the edge of burned sandhill prairie - The Nature Conservancy's Niobrara Valley Preserve, Nebraska. These three bulls were feeding in the burned area until I wandered along with my camera. They then kept a safe distance (for both of us) as I hiked past on the trail. Click for a larger view.

In addition to being an important site ecologically – and a beautiful place to visit – the NVP was also a key site in the development of the fire/bison grazing model that eventually developed into today’s patch-burn grazing.  Al Steuter and others used the Preserve as an incubator for the initial idea of moving bison grazing intensity around large prairies by shifting the location and season of fires.

I’m often asked about the differences between the way bison and cattle impact prairies.  As we continue to experiment with patch-burn grazing, we’re finding that the forage selection differences (they way they choose which plants to eat) between the two animals are pretty slight when they’re managed with patch-burn grazing or similar systems.  Under light stocking rates, both bison and cattle prefer to graze in recently burned patches, and both prefer grass over wildflowers and other plants.

The major differences between bison and cattle appear to be mostly behavioral.  Cattle like to walk in single file, forming trails, while bison tend to move in loose groups.  Cattle tend to sit/stand/poop in water on hot days, while bison don’t hang around water or shade for long periods.  While these can be important differences, there are ways to mitigate the more negative impacts of cattle – e.g.  fencing out sensitive areas and/or keeping stocking rates low.   

On the other hand, there are some disadvantages to using bison to manage prairies instead of cattle.  These are mostly logistical.  With rare exceptions, it’s not possible to lease herds of bison, so if you run bison, you have to own them.  Among other issues, that usually means an annual roundup for innoculations and sorting of animals to thin from the herd (assuming you don’t have unlimited land).  It also means big strong fences and corral systems.  In short, bison can be expensive and time-consuming.  Also, they work best in prairies of several thousand acres or more.  On those large prairies, they can be an important part of good prairie management.  On smaller prairies, cattle can be a very good substitute, if managed carefully.